The video work Long Sorrow (2005) is a requiem for shattered dreams. The renowned American saxophone player Jemeel Moondoc is seen suspended in front of a building façade in a suburb of Berlin, while improvising a soulful tune. The music’s mounting tension creates a cathedral of sounds. The work is named after this building, whose residents call it “Long Sorrow.” As a form of social documentation that is simultaneously a metaphor for artistic expression, Long Sorrow addresses human sensation by means of an architectural intervention. Anri Sala uses techniques and tools from various mediums, and experiments with the language of cinema and video in order to capture the shattering of dreams and ideologies; in doing so, he also captures private histories and small tragedies. Sala’s works are existential studies that weave together intimate stories and social surveys, animating them by means of visions and sudden revelations. His video works expose inaccessible visual and audio textures embedded within the real, and resemble strange paintings in motion. As faded contemporary frescos, they combine various images and sounds, relating international politics to domestic traumas.